Group not giving up on saving USS Ranger

Inactive Navy aircraft carriers are lined up last week at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

BREMERTON — USS Ranger backers are attempting to add the Vietnam-era aircraft carrier to the National Register of Historic Places and save it from the scrap heap.

One result would not likely bring about the other, however.

Rachel Shelton, of the Save the USS Ranger group, completed a comprehensive, 60-page nomination and submitted it May 14. It will be reviewed by the Washington State Advisory Council on Historic Preservation on June 20 in La Conner.

The Ranger is one of four aircraft carriers in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard's Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, or mothball fleet.

In September 2012, the Navy removed it from donation hold and redesignated for dismantling. It had been available for use as a museum or memorial since March 2004, but no organization was able to meet the Navy's minimum requirements. The Ranger Foundation raised $600,000 to purchase a site for it on the Columbia River, but after disagreements about the location, the group folded.

The Independence and Constellation also are destined for dismantling. The Kitty Hawk is being kept in reserve.

Shelton and helpers worked on the nomination for weeks.

"Ranger's story is one that needed to be told, and I was honored to play a small part in telling it," said Shelton, whose father served on the ship.

No complete history existed in one place, so it had to be pieced together.

"Needless to say, I got a good laugh out of the federal government's estimate of 18 hours to complete the form," Shelton said.

The state advisory council next month can approve the aircraft carrier for listing on the Washington Heritage Register and recommend it for the national register. It would advance for recommendations from the state historic preservation officer and the Navy preservation officer before acceptance by the National Park Service, which runs the program.

As impressive as it might be, a National Register listing wouldn't create protections.

"The national register is totally an honorary designation," said Michael Houser, spokesman with the state Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation. "There are no strings attached. The idea is to formally document the resource, celebrate the history and raise the public profile, but it would not stop a scrapping of the ship."

A national listing would increase exposure for the ship and the effort to save it.

"This incredible honor would bring much-deserved recognition both to the ship's place in history and, most importantly, to the efforts of the many veterans who have served on board," Shelton said.

The Navy repeated what it said two months ago in response to Shelton's petition drive on Change.org, which has 1,394 supporters. The Ranger will be dismantled. There is no other fate. The Navy doesn't want to continue to spend $100,000 a year to keep it around, said Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman Kurt Larson.

Ranger, the third of four Forrestal-class aircraft carriers (Forrestal, Saratoga, Independence), was commissioned in August 1957 and completed 20 deployments, including seven to the Vietnam War, before being decommissioned in July 1993.